The people of Eddaland, known as the Eddics, are an sub-group of the Igbo people in south-eastern Nigeria.
The land and people of Eddaland have been constitutionally designated the present day Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
In effect Eddish people are forced to identify very differently from their true heritage as Eddics.
Eddics were relatively culturally and linguistically distinct, but today their old language has gone extinct, and they speak a language is essentially a dialectal form of Igbo, with borrowed words from Efik and with spoken a very distinctive accent from both languages.
Eddaland is composed of many autonomous communities and towns which include: Ebunwana Edda, Nguzu Edda, Ekoli Edda, Owutu Edda, Amangwu Edda, Oso Edda, Etiti Edda, Ogbu Edda etc. The local area headquarters Afikpo South, being the Nigerian government designated administrative name for Eddaland is at Nguzu.
The names of Eddish towns often have Edda at their endings as an addendum designating their membership of the Edda cultural common wealth and community of shared values. Each of the autonomous communities of Eddaland had been existing as small city states with each having its own monarch before Nigeria was carved up by British colonialists. These communities made up of about 72 villages today had been functioning as a confederation of small city states bounded by common heritage until 1867. That was when British colonialists finally enveloped Eddaland into the Southern Oil Protectorate, which even later became a now defunct country of Southern Nigeria. Southern Nigeria was amalgamated with Northern Nigeria, which was a different country, in 1914 to forge today’s Nigeria. The old city states of Eddaland still exist with monarchs that have no administrative functions; but serve as social and cultural representatives of different Eddish communities that were once sovereign.
The Eddish people do not have myths of origin beyond their fathers being ancient roaming nomadic fighting people, who eventually settled on the mostly hilly area that is now their home. In narratives that exist among the Eddics, their ancestors forbade their descendants eventually from fighting for conquest for just accumulation of spoils. Which eventually was exactly how the British Empire that later conquered them and after over 40 years of none frontal wars.
The designation of Afikpo South was given to Eddaland when it was separated from Afikpo Local Government Area in 1991 by the then Nigerian Federal Military Government. Successive legislators from the area have since fought to keep the name of their place, Eddaland as the name of Local Government Area in Nigeria's constitution to better reflect their heritage.
Unlike the tribal peoples of Nigeria that surround them and the larger Igbo ethnic group they have become virtually assimilated into, Eddics do not have concept of being indigenous as a basis for membership of their cities, towns and villages. The more general concept in Eddics is citizenship, which is about membership of person regardless of places of ancestry, to their community of values and shared norms. Persons are not permanent members of a community in Eddaland are considered as guests, and are generally treated very hospitable. Eddics also hold the idea of integrity very highly and regard loyalty highly also.
The local government is administered by an elected Chairman and councillors who are elected from their respective wards within the local government area. The first executive chairman was Chief Sonni Ogbuoji.
Eddaland is bordered by Unwana to the east; Akaeze to the west, Amasiri to the north, Afikpo to the north-east, Ohafia to the south, Nkporo to the south west, and Erei to the south-east.
It has an area of 378 km2 (146 sq mi) and a population of 157,072 at the 2006 census.
There are two distinctive seasons in this area; The rainy and dry seasons. The rainy seasons usually begin in early March and ends in October, to give way for the dry season. The dry season usually begins from October and ends in February. These two seasons are dependent on two prevailing winds-The North East trade wind or Dry Harmattan (also called The Tropical Continental) airmass, laden with dust from the Sahara Desert and the South West trade wind from the south Atlantic Ocean (also called The Tropical Maritime) air mass. Temperatures range from 20 °C to 38 °C during dry season and 16 °C to 28 °C during the rainy season. Average annual rainfall varies from 1750mm to 2250mm. The vegetation here is a parkland, with stunted trees and pockets of woodland and forest consisting of shrubs and large trees.
The economy here is generally subsistence with agriculture as the mainstay. With a new aspiration to modernize and develop the areas to level of parity in economic development and human welfare patterned and after and with the Nordic welfare states of Norway, Iceland and Sweden, where Edda is popular in mythic, Eddics are aligning towards a trajectory of a new future built on education and technology, and could emerge more developed and richer than anyway where on the Southern hemisphere in decades ahead.
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